Binary Stars
by Eliot Rosewater
Summary: What is light can only be measured against the dark, and what is dark only exists in the presence of light.


**Kurt Vonnegut wrote in _Breakfast of Champions_, "Symbols can be so beautiful, sometimes."**

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><p>There once were two brothers who weren't brothers at all except for when it mattered. The elder was light and the younger a shadow. For what is light can only be measured against the dark, and what is dark only exists in the presence of light. The younger, it was said, would wander away to where it was so dark that all was shadow just like him. But then the elder would come and illuminate the crimes done in the absence of light. His luminescence would cast his shadow right there beside him again. The younger would keep on straying though, either by his own will or another's, but the elder would always retrieve him.<p>

After the engineer had been lost in his own mind, the elder went to the younger in his prison to tell him. The elder told the younger that the engineer struggled knowing that his mind was leaving him behind. The younger said that it was just as well that the accident had occurred since an engineer is not an engineer without his wits. The younger broke out of his confinement, as he was like to do, the following evening. A bottle of exotic scotch sat outside the felled engineer's fortress.

When he saw it, the elder knew he'd meet the younger again.

He did, and the younger was captured.

After the sharp eyes had failed the hawk, the elder went to the younger in his new prison to tell him. The elder told the younger that the winds broke the hawk's wings. What good are eyes that cannot get off the ground? The younger said that a hawk's eyes were indeed useless without its wings. Not long after that, the younger flew his lofty prison. A falcon watched the place where the hawk once perched. It left feathers in the empty nest so the hawk would remember what it was to fly.

When he saw it, the elder knew he'd meet the younger again.

He did, and the younger was captured.

After time caught up to the displaced soldier, the elder went to the younger in his new prison to tell him. The elder told the younger that the soldier had been happy to go, to return to those time had robbed him of. The younger said that it was just as well since the soldier was never really a soldier to begin with, but something else. Nigh a week after they spoke, the younger slipped his noose and fled. In an old part of a new city a single red poppy grew quite inexplicably right from the concrete outside an old, marked door.

When he saw it, the elder knew he'd meet the younger again.

He did, and the younger was captured.

After the spider was poisoned by her own venom, the elder went to the younger in his new prison to tell him. The elder told the younger that the spider had spun a web so intricate that not even she could escape. The younger said that the spider was too clever to be caught in any other web than her own; surely there was no sweeter poison than that of the spider. Hardly any time after, the younger freed himself from his chains and escaped his prison. In a cold land very far away, a blank diary sat in the place where the spider had spun her very first web.

When he saw it, the elder knew he'd meet the younger again.

He did, and the younger was captured.

After the beast was tamed, the elder went to the younger in his new prison to tell him. The elder told the younger that the beast was never a beast at all. It was only ever looking for a place to put down its rage. The younger said that the beast was always a beast and that rage may never be put down. Time passed, and the younger broke out of his prison. In a remote swath of land, home to poor and lost souls, a fountain sprung from the desert ground. All those who drank from it had their suffering alleviated, if only for a little while.

When he saw it, the elder knew he'd meet the younger again.

He did, and the younger was captured.

And so on.

After the queen had set sail to a place where they could not follow, after the king had been heralded into the golden halls, after heirs had been born, after both the elder and younger had grown grey with age—after all of this—the elder went to the younger in his prison to tell him. The elder told the younger that he loved him. The elder told the younger good-bye. The younger said that he loved the elder as well. The younger said that he would not see the elder again and that he would miss him. Without another word, the younger vanished from his prison.

After death claimed the elder for her own, the elder rejoiced in the land after time. His heirs were already there, the king and queen, too. The beast was not a beast, finally unburdened. The spider spun beautiful webs of silk. The displaced soldier was no longer displaced. The hawk could fly as far as his sharp eyes could see. The engineer's mind didn't betray him. More than all of them though, the elder wished to see the younger. For there was no light without darkness, and no shadow in the absence of light.

The elder knew he would not meet the younger again.

He didn't, but he never stopped looking.

So it went.

So it goes.

So it will always go.

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><p><strong>Note:<strong>

**Style was inspired by Kurt Vonnegut. This is most evident in the use of "And so on" and "So it goes." Consider this a letter of admiration for his works.**


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